Valerie, you said:
>I am deeply troubled by the trends I see in regard to studies about hiv =
transmission through breastfeeding. It is my wish that more =
breastfeeding advocates will take a hard look at those studies. The =
recent study in the JHL (December 1999) about mastitis as a risk for =
higher transfer of hiv during breastfeeding is a case in point. =
Mastitis was defined as elevated sodium concentrations from breast milk =
samples that were 2 years old<
I agree with you about the need for us to take long and hard looks at the
studies on breastfeeding and HIV. There is another paper (Semba 1999) on
masitis. And a new paper: Feb. 2000 Journal of Infectious Diseases , "Oral
Transmission of Human Immunodeficiency Virus by Infected Seminal Fluid and
Milk: A Novel Mechanism" by Samuel Baron, Joyce Poast, C. Joan Richardson,
Derrick Nguyen, and Miles Cloyd.
Salivary transmission by the 30 million human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)
carriers is rare, despite kissing, aerosolization, and dental treatment. The
main protective mechanism of saliva is reported to be inactivation of
HIV-transmitting leukocytes by its unique hypotonicity; however, the
successful oral transmission of HIV by seminal fluid and milk is
unexplained. Whether seminal fluid and milk successfully transmit HIV orally
by overcoming the recipient's salivary hypotonic inactivation of
HIV-transmitting leukocytes was tested. Isotonic salt solution and normal
donor samples of milk, colostrum, seminal fluid, and blood were studied for
their ability to overcome the salivary hypotonic inactivation. All samples,
in physiologic volumes, prevented the hypotonic saliva from inactivating
HIV-transmitting leukocytes by providing solutes and retarding diffusion.
This indicates that successful oral transmission of HIV by seminal fluid,
milk, and colostrum may be due to their isotonicity, which overcomes
hypotonic salivary inactivation of HIV-transmitting leukocytes.
A colleague (Hi, Phyll) suggested there could be a link
with mastitis in that this increases the salinity of milk. Have to take
time to read the whole paper carefully (yes, it is a challenge with all this
HIV research, most of which is not written in easy English).
http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/JID/journal/issues/v181n2/990771/990771.htm
l
Just a thought. And imagine these guys having to explain what they do for a
living at parties.....
Magda Sachs
Breastfeeding Supporter, The Breastfeeding Network
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